Indianapolis native Kevin "Coach K" Lee helped Young Jeezy, Gucci Mane, Migos and Lil Yachty become household names in the world of hip-hop.

Now the music-industry executive says his hometown is overdue for its own rap star.

"I think that’s one of my duties right now," Lee said Saturday during a visit to Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration. "I want to help one break from here. We haven’t had one. There's Babyface in the R&B world, but we haven’t had a mainstream hip-hop artist."

Lee and Ro James, a North Central High School alum who reached the Top 15 of Billboard magazine's R&B chart with 2016 single "Permission," spoke to a Summer Celebration audience during a panel discussion titled "Images and How They Make Us Move."

Six albums on Lee's independent label, Quality Control Music, have reached the Top 5 of Billboard's Top 200 chart since 2017.

Atlanta is home to Quality Control and its artists, but Lee expressed confidence about finding talent in Indianapolis. He spoke in generalities about opening an office and recording studio.

"I’m going to set up a base camp here, and start spending more time here," he said.

At the Summer Celebration forum largely attended by teenagers, Lee reminisced about playing basketball at Broad Ripple High School and practicing a specific move an opponent couldn't stop.

"What's your niche? Try to get your special piece so you can have your moment," he said, offering a parallel to adolescents interested in the music industry.

The 1989 Broad Ripple graduate averaged 13.2 points per basketball game as a senior, and he also played quarterback for the football Rockets. Lee then played hoops at St. Augustine's University in Raleigh, N.C.

He was a senior at St. Augustine's when stray bullets landed in his right leg.

"It ended my basketball career, but it ignited my music career," Lee said of the injury.

Kevin "Coach K" Lee is introduced to the crowd at Saturday's celebrity basketball game as part of Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration at the Indiana Convention Center.(Photo: Ebony Cox/IndyStar)

Across five months of leg rehabilitation, he listened repeatedly to the music of Sade, A Tribe Called Quest and Redman.

"I listened to that second Sade album every day," Lee said. "I would get in a dark depression place, and that’s what would soothe me."

Lee's initial behind-the-scenes success arrived when he managed the career of crunk-rap pioneer Pastor Troy.

"I was told ‘no’ a lot, so much that I became numb to ‘no,’ " Lee said. "Once you get to a point where you’re numb to ‘no,’ it makes you fearless. You’re not scared anymore. I kept pushing and pushing."

Lee co-founded Quality Control with Pierre "Pee" Thomas in 2012. The label's discography includes two No. 1 albums by Migos and two Top 5 albums by Lil Yachty.

"I love finding the next thing," Lee said. "It does something to me."

Described in a New Yorker profile as a friendly hip-hop godfather, Lee has managed about 15 artists..

"I’ve been blessed," he said. "I’ve made probably more millionaires than my professors at school.

Between graduating from St. Augustine's and moving to Atlanta in 1996, Lee tried to build a music empire in Indianapolis.

The company was known as Universal Stars, with an office near the intersection of 46th Street and Keystone Avenue.

Lee said Universal Stars was a collaboration of 10 friends who split tasks among production, A&R, marketing and entertainment law.

"We had a real company," he said. "But we were friends, and we couldn't separate the friendship from the business."

Universal Stars released no music, Lee said.

One of Saturday's audience members asked Lee if he believed it's necessary to leave Indianapolis to find success in music.

"I don’t think you have to leave, but you should always be trying to expand your scene or your territory or your area," he said.

Unknown acts often tell Lee they're going to pack up and move to Atlanta.

"I say, ‘Don’t do that. You’re not from Atlanta. Atlanta has a community of artists that’s going to support Atlanta artists,' " he said.

Lee mentioned more than once Saturday that he's hoping to mentor young executives who can expand the Coach K brand.

He also said it's important to know the difference between his Coach K persona and Kevin Lee from Broad Ripple High.

"Coach K is a fierce businessman," Lee said. "Kevin is this quiet, laid-back guy. I was so nervous to come out here to speak today, but I knew I had to do it. And I wanted to do it. I have a mission to share my experience and teach."

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